Harvey Willgoose’s mum learned son stabbed to death from ‘RIP’ social media post

Caroline Willgoose, 51, said she will forever be tormented for telling her son to go back to the ‘lions’ den’ when he ended up being murdered at school in Sheffield in February

The mum of murdered teenager Harvey Willgoose recalled her horrifying scream after discovering her son had been murdered at school.

She confessed that she will forever be tormented by guilt for encouraging the 15-year-old to return to what she now refers to as the “lions’ den”. Caroline Willgoose, 51, and her husband Mark, 52, spoke about their heart-wrenching discovery of their “amazing” son’s death through a social media post reading ‘RIP Harvey’.

Despite their sorrow, the couple have pledged to continue their fight for knife arches to be installed in schools. “Children are going to school scared. This cannot be allowed to happen again.”

The accused, a fellow 15-year-old student who cannot be named, had previously admitted to manslaughter but denied murder, claiming that he lost control and did not recall stabbing Harvey twice.

However, after more than 14 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him of murder with a majority verdict of 11-1 – he is due to be sentenced later this year.

Just five days before his tragic death, Harvey’s school, All Saints Catholic High, was put on lockdown following reports of a student possessing a weapon. Although the police were called, no weapon was found.

Caroline told the Mirror: “Harvey was a school-avoider, he didn’t go to school that day, and he sent Mark a message saying: ‘This is why I don’t go school, Dad, because people have knives’.”

She described the trial as “mental torture”, often too distressing to endure, especially with the murderer’s gaze fixed on her from the dock. To escape the gruesome details being recounted in court, she was provided a small room adjacent where she attempted to distract herself with a jigsaw puzzle.

Recalling the final words she heard from Harvey, she shared: “He was walking downstairs and I was following him down and he says ‘I’m going to school mum. Are you proud of me?’

“Because it was always about how to get him to school. I said; ‘I am love’ and he said: ‘Love you bye. Shut the door behind me’. But Harvey never made it home.”

Just hours later, he was stabbed twice by a fellow student at the academy school on Monday, February 3, merely five minutes into the lunch break. The assault was so brutal that the knife pierced five ribs before fatally ripping into his heart.

Caroline revealed that his death has “broken” their family, including his older siblings, Sophie, 28, and Lewis, 25. She stated: “Our lives are ruined because I know that I’m never, ever going to be happy again. His sister, his brother, we’re never going to be happy again. And, that’s a fact.”

Caroline described how she was preparing for her afternoon shift at a factory when her phone began ringing: “It was Mark’s mum who rang and said ‘something’s happened to Harvey’…I rang Mark up and he was just screaming down the phone ‘he’s been stabbed, he’s been stabbed. It’s serious Caz, it’s serious’. I was like ‘what?’

“As I put the phone down a police car came on our front and said ‘you need to come with us now.’ And then my other son Lewis came from work, we worked together but he was on the early shift. They brought him from work and they were going to blue light us to Northern General. Then half way there they said ‘we’re going to the children’s (hospital), turn the blue lights off and go at normal speed’.

“I turned to Lewis and said ‘he’s not going to that school again’ and Lewis said ‘why, do you think he’s all right?’ and I said ‘yes, of course he is’. And then there were loads of people outside the hospital waiting for us and they put us into this room and we had to wait for Sophie and Mark to come. They ran in and two women ran in after. I picked the phone up and someone had said ‘RIP Harvey’.

“I told them; ‘someone’s just said RIP Harvey.’ and they said ‘yes, he’s died. He’s passed away’. And I just screamed, we were all just screaming. Then they said after five minutes. He’s not going to come here, he’s going to stay there for a long time because it’s a crime scene but then he’ll be moved to the Chapel of Rest’.

“I was like: ‘I saw him this morning’ and we all started screaming again, it was horrendous.” She said her grief still ‘hasn’t even touched the surface yet’ and says she keeps going thanks to Harvey.

“Harvey is with me. When I feel like I’m going to crumble, he’s saying ‘no, no’. There’s so many things that need to change. And this is why I’m driven. I’m doing this for Harvey.”

The murderer was granted permission to fiddle with spinners whilst seated in the dock hearing the evidence presented against him. Yet Caroline found no solace in courtroom one, unable to bear watching the CCTV footage of Harvey’s killing, which was shown repeatedly to the jury.

The sole footage she could endure viewing showed Harvey’s encounters with his attacker in the hallways moments before his death.

“When he’s goading him, Harvey’s just got his hands behind his back, then he’s got his coat in one hand and juice in the other, and then he just turns and talks to a girl. But I can tell that he’s frightened.”

When questioned whether she believed his killer grasped the enormity of his actions, she replied: “I don’t know. When I’m in there, he does look at me all the time. And I hope that he does. But, I don’t know.”

Remarkably, the mother even finds space for some sympathy towards her son’s killer, observing: “He’s very cocky (in court) but is that a mask? Because at the end of the day he’s 15 years old and he’s in this courtroom with all these strangers, these adults. Is it a mask? I hope it is. I hope he is sorry, but he hasn’t shown any remorse.

“I haven’t got any feelings for him. I feel like he’s been let down as well, really, if you listen to all the story. But I still want justice, I still want him to go away for a long time, I want him to be done for murder. He’s got to serve a long time in prison.”

His sister Sophie also endured the proceedings in anguish and during the trial wrote on Facebook: “Today was one of the hardest days of my life. I had to sit in a courtroom just feet away from the family of the person who murdered my brother. I had to watch devastating CCTV footage of my brother being stabbed. Then trying to run away, not even realising he’d been stabbed… before collapsing to the ground.

“I had to see his killer parade around school with the knife, dancing and showing it off like it was something to be proud of. I had to watch hours of footage showing my brother being pushed around and tormented throughout the day.

“I saw him take himself into isolation, just trying to stay out of harm’s way. I had to sit there and cry in front of journalists, in front of strangers, completely broken. I had to watch his murderer sit there with no remorse whatsoever. I had to look at a pool of my brother’s blood on the screen – something no sibling should ever have to see.

“We had to listen as the police revealed that the boy who killed my brother had an obsession with weapons… had photos of himself posing with knives and weapons. How was this ever allowed to continue?”

“This post isn’t for sympathy. It’s a post to show that knife crime is real, and it has a devastating impact on everyone involved. The Willgoose family will never be the same again.”

Harvey’s mum consistently shares clips and images of her beloved son, saying: “I’m just posting things all the time, just keeping him alive.

“I want him to be remembered as the fun-loving kid, cheeky-chappy, sociable kid that he was. He was just a joy. He was a million miles an hour, he was a happy chappy, loved life, loads of friends. He’s just left a big empty hole.”

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